Marijuana, Friend or Foe?

A nation divided, on whether or not to legalize this plant.

Legalization of marijuana can be a source of making and saving money. It can make money because the government can tax marijuana sales and industries. And it can save money by cleaning up the overcrowded jails because maintaining these jails, for a large amount of inmates, can cost the government millions of dollars every year.

Legalization of marijuana is beneficial because it can generate revenue from taxes. Like cigarettes, alcohol, and other products with the excises tax, marijuana can be taxed extra to create tax revenue. Marijuana being a highly popular substance, can guarantee the government billions of dollars over the years in taxes alone. According to the Cato Industry, “legalization could generate as much as $8.7 billion in annual revenue for federal and state coffers.” According to the video above, it shows a clear representation of the current Annual Marijuana Tax revenues from two states that have legalized marijuana recently. It shows that Colorado, has an estimated $67 million dollars worth of tax revenue and Washington state with about $580 Million dollars. And lastly shows an estimate of $5.8 Billion dollars of National annual tax revenues. These figures show that the legalization of marijuana is working, in Colorado and Washington, and can generate billions of tax dollars.

Legalization of marijuana can save the government a lot of money because it can help with cleaning up the overcrowded jails in the US. According to Cato, “we lose $17.4 billion in taxpayer funds every year to arrests for non-violent drug crimes like sale and possession.” Since we spend about $80 billion dollars a year on prisons in the US, almost 1/4th of that goes to “non-violent drug crimes like sale and possession.” In the video above, Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, spoke out about the current crisis of the overcrowded jails and how much money is being spent on maintaining them. He believes that it is time to ratify the prosecution of people who are caught for non gang related drug offenses and giving them a lesser sentence than those who are affiliated with gangs and cartels. Although his plan may not be as effective as legalization of marijuana it is a step closer to the legalization of marijuana.

Legalization of marijuana will be a source of making and saving money. It can make money because the government can tax marijuana sales and industries. And it can save money by cleaning up the overcrowded jails because maintaining these jails, for a large amount of inmates, can cost the government millions of dollars every year. Marijuana is literally the “cash crop” currently in todays market. Marijuana can provide millions, and billions of dollars a year `annually. It can save the government millions, make the government billions because of the excise tax the drug could have. While today we have bankrupt cities, people without jobs and a super high government deficit, marijuana can come into play and create jobs save bankrupt cities and produce industries to help with the struggling economy. It can help with the overcrowded jail system that is struggling economically to operate. Its struggling because the land of the free is the largest prison in the world, and almost a third of people in jail right now are because of marijuana offenses. Marijuana is a very valuable crop and if legalized, regulated and taxed well, it will prove great things for the economy of the United States of America.